The HillTube

Kirk: Obama asking senators to drop China currency bill

Despite Kirk’s pessimism, it seems likely his Senate colleagues at least will give the bill their stamp of approval. The bill was moved to the Senate floor on Monday by a strong bipartisan majority of 79-19.

The Senate floor was dormant for most of Wednesday afternoon with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who is the floor manager for The Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011, S. 1619, occasionally coming to the floor to express his support.

The legislation is, in part, designed to pressure the Chinese government to stop undervaluing its currency.

House Speaker John Boehner has strongly criticized the measure. "It’s a pretty dangerous thing to be moving legislation through the U.S. Congress forcing someone to deal with the value of a currency," he said on Tuesday.